Ready-to-assemble items, such as furniture, shelving, and even construction-related materials, are widely used by consumers in a number of different applications. Although such items are generally more convenient than traditional items to manufacture, ship, store, and construct, conventional ready-to-assemble structures have room for improvement, both in terms of functionality and aesthetics. Further, many ready-to-assemble structures lack strength and durability and, oftentimes, have a limited usable life, especially when exposed to heavy use, rough service, and/or repeated assembly and disassembly. One proposed method of enhancing the strength, durability, and/or aesthetics of a ready-to-assemble structure is to apply a coating material to each of the components of the system. Unfortunately, many coating materials used in such applications exhibit poor adhesion to the underlying substrate and/or fail to exhibit a desirable final appearance, resulting in an overall low-quality product. Other coatings are difficult to apply or can only be applied to relatively simple substrates having planar surfaces without cuts, grooves, channels, or other complex geometries or geometric features, greatly limiting the design and functionality of the resulting system.
Thus, a need exists for improved structural systems with greater durability, enhanced functionality, and a higher aesthetic value that are also simple to manufacture, ship, assemble, and use. Preferably, such structures would also be capable of being produced both conveniently and inexpensively, while still providing final products having a high level of quality.